Current and historical procedures for treatment of colon and rectal cancer generally have been based upon the natural history of tumor spread, and thence, upon operative and non-operative options available to the practitioner. Operative options generally have looked to the physical identification and surgical resection of tumor. A variety of techniques have been brought to bear in the art with the purpose of aiding the surgeon in detecting and localizing neoplastic tissue as part of this surgical procedure. ("Neoplastic tissue," for the present purposes, often is referred to as cancerous tissue, though malignant tumor and malignant tumor cells also are found in the terminology of the art. The term "neoplastic tissue" includes all of these.) A substantial amount of the effort which has been expended in seeking to aid the surgeon in the process of locating neoplastic tissue has been concerned with the utilization of radiolabeled antibody. For example, one technique includes the scintillation scanning of patients who have been injected with relatively high energy, e.g. .sup.131 I labeled antibodies. Such photoscanning scintigrams are difficult to interpret because of blood pool background radioactivity. Computer subtraction of radioactive blood pool agents and the use of two labeled antibodies (one specific for the tumor and one non-specific) have been attempted in an effort to enhance imaging. Nevertheless, such techniques have been found to provide little, if any, useful information to the surgeon, especially over and above the CAT scan, magnetic resonance imaging, and like traditional techniques. Typically, large tumor is readily located by the surgeon by visualization at the operating theater, and, in particular, through palpation, i.e. the feel of tumor as opposed to that of normal tissue. To achieve operative success, however, it is necessary for the surgeon to somehow locate "occult" tumor, i.e. tumor which cannot be found by the conventional surgical procedures of sight and feel. Failure to locate and remove such occult tumor generally will result in the continued growth of cancer in the patient, a condition often referred to as "recurrent" cancer. In general, conventional diagnostic techniques such as, for example, use of the classic gamma camera and the like, fail to find or locate occult tumor. As tumor sites become smaller, the radionuclide concentrations at a given site will tend to be lost, from an imaging standpoint, in the background where blood pool radiation necessarily is present in the patient.
In 1984, Martin, M. D., and Thurston, Ph.D., introduced a much improved method for locating, differentiating, and removing neoplasms. Such technique uses a radiolabeled antibody and a portable radiation detection probe which the surgeon may use intraoperatively in order to detect sites of radioactivity. Because of the proximity of the detection probe to the labeled antibody, the faint radiation emanating from occult sites becomes detectable, for example, in part because of the inherent application of the approximate inverse square law of radiation propagation. The procedure now is known as radioimmunoguided surgery (RIGS.RTM.) (RIGS being a registered trademark of Neoprobe Corporation of Dublin, Ohio). The RIGS system for surgery additionally is successful because of a recognition that tumor detection should be delayed until the blood pool background of the circulating radiolabeled antibody has had an opportunity to be cleared from the body. As a consequence, the photon emissions or radiation emitted at minute tumors, compared to surrounding tissue, becomes detectable in view of the proximity of the probe device to it. Fortuitously, the radiolabeled antibody is capable of remaining bound to or associated with neoplastic tissue for extended periods of time with the radio tag still bound thereto. Moreover, even though the accretion of radioactivity at the tumor site decreases over time, the blood pool background and surrounding tissue (relative to the tumor sites) decrease at a much greater rate so that the radioactive sites can be determined readily utilizing a hand-held probe positioned in close proximity with the tissue under investigation. The seminal patent concerned with the RIGS procedure is U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,840 by Martin and Thurston, entitled "Method for Locating, Differentiating, and Removing Neoplasms," issued November 8, 1988, and assigned in common herewith, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The important advances achieved through radioimmunoguided-surgery have been reported. See in this regard, the following publications:
(1) "Radioimmunoguided Surgery system Improves Survival for Patients with Recurrent Colorectal Cancer" Bertsch, et al., Surgery 1995; 118: 634-639. PA1 (2) "Radioimmunoguided Surgery in Primary Colorectal Carcinoma: An Intraoperative Prognostic Tool and Adjuvant to Traditional Staging," Arnold, etal., American J. Surg. 1995; 179:315-318. PA1 (3) "The Significance of Intraoperative Periportal Lymph Node Metastasis Identification in Patients with Colorectal Carcinoma," Schneebaum, et al., Cancer 1995; 75: 2809-2817. PA1 (4) "Identification of Occult Micrometastases in Pericolic Lymph Nodes of Dukes' B Colorectal Cancer Patients Using Monoclonal Antibodies against Cytokeratin and CC49," Greenson, et al., Cancer 1994; 73: 563-569. PA1 (5) "Intraoperative Detection of Occult Colon Cancer Micrometastases Using .sup.125 I-Radiolabeled Monoclonal Antibody CC49," Cote, et al., Cancer 1996; 77: 613-620. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,803 by Denen, Thurston and Ramsey, entitled "Detector and Localizer for Low Energy Radiation Emissions," issued Jan. 31, 1989. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,013 by Denen, Thurston and Ramsey, entitled "Detector and Localizer for Low Energy Radiation Emissions," issued Jan. 9, 1990. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,878 by Denen, entitled "Detector and Localizer for Low Energy Radiation Emissions," issued Dec. 10, 1991. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,598 by Denen, entitled "Detector and Localizer for Low Energy Radiation Emissions," issued Sep. 29, 1992.
The radioimmunoguided surgical system instrumentation is comprised generally of two basic components, a hand-held probe, as described above, which is in electrical communication via a flexible cable with a control console. This control console is located within the operating room facility but out of the sterile field, while the hand-held probe and forward portions of its associated cable are located within that field. The hand-held radiation detecting probe is relatively small and performs in conjunction with a cadmium-zinc-telluride detector or crystal.
The hand-held probe and preamplification electronics mounted within it in support of the cadmium-zinc-telluride crystal have been the subject of extensive scientific development. Cadmium-zinc-telluride crystals are somewhat fragile and exhibit piezoelectric properties which, without rigorous accommodation, will produce deleterious noise phenomena and the like. Further, the crystal and its operatively associated preamplification function are called upon to detect necessarily very faint radiation. In this regard, only a very small amount of radioactive locator will be associated with minute, occult tumor. Thus, radiation emission count rates measured with the RIGS system are relatively low. Research activity concerning the above operational criteria is reflected in the following U.S. Patents.
To derive data representing the presence or absence of occult tumor, a microprocessor-driven complex system of analysis continuously works to statistically evaluate validated counts or gamma strikes to aurally apprise the surgeon of the presence or absence of occult neoplastic tissue. One algorithm under which the noted evaluation takes place is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,991 by Ramsey and Thurston, entitled "Gamma Radiation Detector with Enhanced Signal Treatment," issued Dec. 26, 1989.
The RIGS system, not only having demonstrated its value in locating occult neoplastic tissue, also substantially aids the surgeon in determining the proper staging of the patient in accordance with the extent and severity of the disease. Such staging aids in determining the appropriate post-surgical treatment of patients. In this regard, an effective staging technique utilizing the RIGS system has been described wherein an R Number is determined in accordance with the formula: EQU R Number=(n.sub.1 E.sub.1).sub.1 +(n.sub.2.times.E.sub.2).sub.2 +(n.sub.3.times.E.sub.3).sub.3 +(n.sub.4.times.E.sub.4).sub.4
wherein each subscript 1-4 represents an anatomic zone, staging of the patient being based upon the R Number determination. See generally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,040 by Martin, Jr., entitled "Biostaging of Adenocarcinomas Utilizing Radiolabeled Tumor-Associated Glycoprotein Antibodies," issued Jan. 9, 1996.
The RIGS system has been introduced into the field of laparoscopic surgery. See in this regard U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,133 by Thurston, et al., entitled: "Radiation Responsive Laparoscopic Instrument" issued Jul. 4, 1995 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,456 by Arnold and Thurston, entitled: "Radiation-Based Laparoscopic Method For Determining Treatment Modality" issued Jan. 24, 1995.
Cadmium telluride-based crystals, when employed in conjunction with the RIGS system perform admirably. Advantageously, higher purity levels for the compound crystals are not mandated in order to generate highly acceptable count-based outputs within an energy region of interest. Such performance, typically, is evaluated in conjunction with a multi-channel analyzer (MCA) relating counts with energy levels of interest. Where a sharp photopeak at the energy level of interest occurs which, in turn, is well spaced from regions of an MCA curve representing electrical noise, Compton scattering or the like, then windowing or thresholding out of such noise is a straightforward procedure. Cadmium telluride-based crystals achieve this excellent performance, inter alia, because they are used in conjunction with the radionuclide .sup.125 I which exhibits relatively low gamma energy (27-35 Kev). By contrast, the commonly employed .sup.131 I exhibits gamma energy of 360 Kev. The cadmium-zinc-telluride crystals employed with the RIGS system are, for the purposes of the instant discussion, considered to be "thin," i.e. having a thickness, d, of 2 mm. With the RIGS system, upon the occurrence of a photon event, a generation of carrier pairs generally will occur in a manner wherein holes are trapped at the grounded front face of the crystal. From that position they are immediately collected by the initial integration stage of a signal treatment system. The carrier electrons, traveling at a velocity which is about twelve times greater than the rate of hole migration, all move essentially the same distance, such that, even if they are trapped, they are trapped to the same degree, and the result is an excellently performing crystal detection system.
Over the recent past, practitioners have been desirous of utilizing instrumentation similar to the RIGS system in conjunction with higher energy radionuclides. In particular, a call has been made for a cadmium telluride-based hand-held probe device which is operable in conjunction with the use of the radionuclide Technetium 99-m. The latter radionuclide exhibits a gamma energy level of, for example, 140 Kev. That value is somewhat excessive for the cadmium-telluride crystal architecture employed with the RIGS system. However, utilization of a hand-held probe with higher energy nuclides for the purpose of lymph system tracking is achieving importance.
The involvement of the lymph system in tumor metastasis has been the subject of extensive investigation and is well established. Lymphatic systems are present as widely dispersed tissues, fluids, and cells concerned in a variety of interrelated functions of the mammalian body including the circulation and modification of tissue fluid formed in the capillary beds, and the removal by mononuclear phagocytes of cell debris and foreign matter. The lymphatic system is importantly involved in participation with the blood vascular system in developing the immune response of the lymphocytes and other cells. Lymph flows within the system as a consequence of a variety of perceived mechanisms of organ and tissue dynamics. For certain cancers, metastasis, occurring in consequence of lymph drainage, will result in an initial location or positioning of neoplastic cells at certain lymph nodes typically deemed "regional nodes" within a pertinent lymph drainage basin. Some cancers, for example, melanomas, have been observed to exhibit variability in lymphatic drainage patterns emanating from different portions of the body. Other cancers, such as those encountered in the breast, will evidence somewhat more predictable nodal involvement. In designing forms of cancer disease management, therefore, efforts are directed to the identification of affected lymph nodes. For melanomas, it has been a more recent practice to identify the pertinent drainage basin or regional nodes along with an evaluation of the extent of lymph involvement with micrometastasis. A pre-surgical step undertaken in about 20% of investigational procedures concerning melanomas looks to the carrying out of a gamma camera generated form of lymphoscintigraphy which gives the clinician a gross two-dimensionally limited image, generally showing the tumor site injection of sulfur colloid labeled with Technetium 99-m (.sup.99m Tc) and, spaced therefrom, a region of radioactivity at the pertinent regional lymph nodes. The latter information at least confirms the path of drainage and the location of the proper drainage basin. Regional nodes then are removed and submitted for pathology evaluation.
For cancers, such as breast cancer, the sites of lymph node involvement are commonly encountered at axillary, internal mammary, and supraclavicular lymph node regions. Of these, the axillary lymph node region is the principal site of regional metastasis from carcinoma of the breast, and approximately 40% of patients have evidence of spread to the axillary nodes. In early approaches to the disease, these axillary nodes were removed as a form of therapy. Presently, however, their positive involvement, or lack thereof, has become the subject of diagnostics, as opposed to therapy. In this regard, the combination of the presence and extent of metastasis to the axilla represents the single most important prognostic factor for the management of patients with breast cancer. See generally "Cancer, Principles and Practice of Oncology," vol. 1, 4th ed., DeVita, Jr., et al., chapter 40, Harris, et al., J.P. Lippincott Co., Philadephia, Pa. (1993).
The axilla is a triangular region bounded by the axillary vein superiorly, the latissimus dorsi laterally, and the serratus anterior medially. With more current diagnostic procedures, essentially all axillary nodes at the axilla assumed to represent the drainage basin are removed during surgery for analysis. In general, somewhere between 10 and 30 nodes will be removed in the course of dissection with, of course, the attendant risks. In this regard, these nodes are generally surrounded by investment or fatty tissue and visualization of them necessarily is limited. Such dissection will pose risks of cutting the long thoracic nerve, the thoracic-dorsal nerve, the nerve to the pectoralis major or the axillary vein. Morbidity may occur in some cases due to regional node removal, and patients are known to frequently discuss a numbing of the arm region following the procedure.
While this form of somewhat radical axillary lymph node dissection has been the conventional approach to determining nodal metastatic involvement, more recent data suggests that less radical axillary node evaluation procedures may generate equivalent information for staging and patient management, but with far more limited dissection and resultant trauma, as discussed below.
Patient management for staging purposes for the case of cutaneous melanoma is highly predicated upon determinations of lymph involvement. A number of factors are involved in the prognosis of the disease, including, inter alia, location, tumor thickness, level of invasion, growth patterns, and, of particular importance, the identification of regional node metastatic involvement. Generally, surgical excision of metastatic nodes within the drainage basin of a lesion has been considered the only effective treatment for cure or disease control. Some investigators have preferred to excise only clinically demonstrable metastatic nodes associated with the lesion, while others have chosen to excise the nodes even where they may appear normal because of the risk of the presence of occult (clinically undetectable) metastasis. A substantial dialog has been carried on by investigators as to whether or not elective lymph node dissection, or lymphadenectomy, is an appropriate therapy. Elective lymphodenectomy has the major advantage of treating a nodal metastasis at a relatively early stage in its natural history when the tumor burden is low. On the other hand, such an approach may subject patients to surgery which would otherwise have been unnecessary. In particular, where patients exhibit a clinical Stage I level of the disease, there will be no nodal metastasis present, and no benefit then can be realized from regional lymphadenectomy.
Morton, et al., undertook an investigation of a procedure designed to identify that lymph node nearest the site of a melanoma and within the pertinent lymph drainage basin. Such a node, being on the most direct drainage pathway will present the most likely site of early metastasis and is referred to as the "sentinel node." Thus, by carrying out only a limited dissection, specific to this node and performing pathologic analysis of it, staging can be achieved without at least initial resort to more radical lymphadenectomy. With the approach, once the drainage basin from a lesion is identified, for example, by lymphoscintigraphy, an intraoperative mapping of the cutaneous lymphatics with vital dye is carried out at the time of surgical removal of the primary lesion. The vital dye, for example of blue color, is injected at the site of the lesion and tracked by blunt dissection until the sentinel node is reached. That node is now exclusively of blue color and readily identified. Thus, the sentinel draining lymph node of each primary melanoma is isolated and removed. By examining the sentinel nodes, for example by frozen section using routine hematoxylin-eosin histopathological techniques, as well as rapid immunohistochemical techniques, only those patients who have evidence of micrometastasis in the sentinel draining node are subject to subsequent lymphodenectomy. See generally, Morton D., Wen D-R, Wong J., et al. "Technical Details of Intraoperative Lymphatic Mapping for Early Stage Melanoma," Arch. Surg. 1992: 127:392-399; and R.F. Uren, et. al, "Lymphoscintigraphy in High-Risk Melanoma of the Trunk: Predicting Draining Node Groups, Defining Lymphatic Channels and Locating the Sentinel Node," J. Nucl Med 1993; 34:1435-1440.
The approach of Morton, et al., also has been undertaken to moderate the otherwise somewhat radical axillary lymph node dissection common in staging breast cancer. Through the utilization of the noted vital dyes, in conjunction with the lymph drainage system from primary breast tumor, less radical sentinel node based procedures may result in adequate axillary staging and regional control. With the procedure, in general, a vital blue dye is injected into the breast mass and surrounding breast parenchyma. Following a relatively short interval, a transverse incision is made just below the hair bearing region of the axilla. Blunt dissection is performed until a lymphatic tract or duct leading to a blue stained node is identified. The lymph duct, having a blue color, provides a guide path leading to the location of the most proximal lymph node and thus the sentinel node. This sentinel node is excised and evaluated. While the procedure calls for considerable surgical experience and talent associated with the delicate task of following the blue duct (a ruptured dye-carrying duct can be problematic), the ability to identify a tumor-free sentinel lymph node will enable the surgeon to accurately stage metastasis-free breast cancer patients without subjecting them to the risks of radical dissection. The approach may also improve histologic staging by enabling the pathologist to focus on fewer lymph nodes. See generally Guiliano, A. E.; Kirgan, B. M.; Guenther, J. M.; and Morton, D. L., "Lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymphadenectomy for Breast Cancer," Annals of Surgery, vol. 220, no. 3: 391-401, 1994, J.B. Lippincott Company.
As a replacement for or an adjunct to the tracking of portions of the lymph system to locate a sentinel lymph node, practitioners have injected the noted sulfur colloid labeled with .sup.99m Tc technician at the site of the lesion. Then, employing a hand-held radiation detecting probe, migration of the injectate along the lymph ducts to the sentinel node is carried out. Thurston, et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,704 entitled "Radiation Based Method for Locating and Differentiating Sentinel Nodes," issued Mar. 31, 1998, describe an improved technique for thus tracking a lymph duct and for utilizing a thresholding procedure three-dimensionally finding a radiolabeled sentinel lymph node with a hand-held probe.
As the use of radionuclides in the course of diagnostics and management of disease has expanded significantly over the past two decades, a concomitant need has arisen for instrumentation exhibiting a flexibility of use. Higher levels of computing power now are called for along with a flexibility or adaptability of performance. This calls for software driven equipment with software restructuring capabilities so as to readily convert equipment to new procedures and techniques which may employ a wide range of different radionuclides. Equipment improvements facilitating readout values and enhanced surgical data reporting are needed by practitioners both to ease the burden necessarily imposed within the surgical theatre and to evoke higher levels of measurement accuracy.